“The suspicion in Emily’s mind appeared preposterous. She thought she perceived that Montoni was paying serious addresses to her aunt, and that she not only accepted them, but was jealously watchful of any appearance of neglect on his part. That Madame Cheron at her years should select a second husband was ridiculous, though her vanity made it not impossible; but that Montoni, with his discernment, his figure and pretensions, should made a choice of Madame Cheron, appeared most wonderful. Her thoughts, however, did not dwell long on the subject; nearer interests pressed upon them; Valancourt, rejected of her aunt, and Valancourt dancing with a gay and beautiful partner, alternately tormented her mind. As she passed along the gardens she looked timidly forward, half fearing and half hoping that he might appear in the crowd; and the disappointment she felt on not seeing him told her that she had hoped more than she had feared.” Apart from the unfamiliar names this could be Jane Austen. Madame Cheron is a character rather like Darcy’s aunt Lady Catherine de Bourgh, a seeming tyrant who has no awareness of the social faux pas she commits. The quote is actually from Mrs Ann Radcliffe’s ‘Mysteries of Udolpho’, the book Austen parodied in Northanger Abbey. Nevertheless, writing around 10 years later, was she influenced by Radcliffe’s style or did she simply absorb it as Radcliffe’s works would have been what she herself read as a young woman?